A graduating high school senior bound for Yale University revealed in her commencement speech that she is an illegal immigrant.
McKinney Boyd High School valedictorian Larissa Martinez told a packed auditorium: “I am one of the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the shadows of the United States.”
According to Martinez, who came from Mexico with her mother and sister to escape an abusive and alcoholic father in 2010, only 10 people knew about her legal status.
“After all of these years, I have finally mustered up the courage to stand before you and share a struggle I’ve had to deal with each and every day,” she said in the speech, later telling Dallas’ WFAA 8 that her she got a full-ride scholarship to Yale and wants to eventually be a doctor.
Over her high school career, Martinez held a 4.95 GPA and took 17 advanced placement classes.
“We are here without official documentation because the U.S. immigration system is broken and it has forced many families to live in fear,” she said, adding, “Undocumented immigrants are people too.”
Martinez also took an indirect shot at presumed Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has called Mexican immigrants “rapists” and expressed his desire to build a wall on the country’s U.S. border.
“The most important part of the debate and is often overlooked is that immigrants, undocumented or otherwise, are people too,” Martinez said. “People with dreams, aspirations, hopes and loved ones. People like me. People who have become a part of the American society and way of life and who yearn to help ‘make America great again’ without the construction of a wall built on hatred and prejudice.” She admitted to WFAA that she was alluding to Trump.
Martinez is currently working to gain U.S. citizenship.
